This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Preview: Jaguar F-Pace was worth the wait

The luxury British brand is marching into the SUV market with its first offering, the F-Pace. The late arrival doesn’t disappoint.

We’ve come to Montenegro, a place that makes Newfoundland look like Saskatchewan, to see if Jaguar can put the “sport” into sport utility. (Jaguar)

This Jag has a cargo hold that’s among the largest in this field. (Jaguar)

The map rotates around the direction you're heading in like a tornado in your peripheral vision. It’s nausea-inducing when going down endless switchbacks. (Jim Kenzie / for the Toronto Star)

The F-Pace has borrowed some of the off-road management technology from corporate cousin Land Rover, including Hill Descent Control — push a button, steer the car downhill and it looks after throttle and braking for you. (Jim Kenzie / for the Toronto Star)

Maserati first called its SUV concept the Kubang. Fortunately, the production Levante sounds a lot better. (Jim Kenzie / for the Toronto Star)

We’ve come to this former chunk of Yugoslavia, a place that makes Newfoundland look like Saskatchewan, to see if Jaguar can put the “sport” into sport utility.

This country has lots of tight twisty roads that are generally well maintained near the populous coastal regions, but not so much deeper into the interior.

These routes provide an excellent venue for testing a multi-purpose vehicle such as the Jaguar F-Pace.

We tested two powertrains, the 380 horse version of the supercharged 3.0-litre gasoline V6, (which along with its 340 horsepower variant will be available at launch next month), and the 2.0-litre turbo inline four “Ingenium” diesel that will arrive in Canada in September.

Article Continued Below

The V6 (0 — 100 km/h in 5.5 seconds) provides excellent throttle response. Its lovely exhaust note is a shade more subdued than in the F-Type sports car.

The diesel is a bit rattly at idle as diesels will be, and there’s a hint of hesitation upon acceleration from rest. Once the turbo spools up, the ample torque kicks in. The exhaust note calms down into a reassuring thrum when cruising.

The electric power-assisted steering offers good feedback from the road-tire interface, and it provides excellent turn-in thanks surely in part to the Pirelli P Zero tires.

In the F-Pace, you’re sitting higher off the ground than you would be in a Jag sedan or sports car, but you could be forgiven for forgetting that.

The problem here of course is that you aren’t sitting at your desk like you would be using your phone. Instead, you’re trying to avoid becoming part of Montenegro’s gorgeous scenery, or interacting with its legions of suicidal drivers.

At least the radio volume control is a real knob.

The SatNav map cannot be fixed in the “north up” display mode, which is how maps have been since humans first started scratching them on the walls of caves. Especially when endless switchbacks in the “heading up” mode means the map is swirling like a tornado in your peripheral vision. It’s nausea-inducing. They tell us this will be fixed before final production begins.

The F-Pace has borrowed some of the off-road management technology from corporate cousin Land Rover, including Hill Descent Control — push a button, steer the car downhill and it looks after throttle and braking for you.

Also, the F-Pace has All Surface Progress Control — essentially, Hill Ascent Control.

Push a button to engage the system, hit the set button on the Cruise Control, and the car automatically applies just as much throttle as needed to make a smooth start on poor surfaces, even up very steep hills.

A couple of off-road-ish sections were carved out for us to try these features, not that most F-Pace owners will take their cars off-road, at least not on purpose.

A stretch of abysmally rocky goat track, which might be closer to the rough cottage country roads an F-Pace could encounter in the Muskokas, proved it to be equally capable under those conditions.

What impressed under all circumstances was how solid the F-Pace felt.

The technology inside this cat

If you’re late to the party, you better make your arrival special. Here’s what Jaguar has done to make the F-Pace stand out.

This SUV is based on Jaguar’s aluminum-intensive architecture which also underpins the XE and XF sedans.

Jaguar says 81 per cent of the parts are unique to the F-Pace, although many of those are maybe 90 per cent similar to their cousins, but larger or slightly heavier to handle the bigger car.

Still, this commonality reduces build complexity and cost.

The aluminum and magnesium components keep the F-Pace’s weight down to under 1,600 kg in base models, which is excellent in this class.

A rear-drive F-Pace — a “faux-by-four” if you like — will be offered in some markets, but Canada will only get full-time four-wheel drive with a rearward torque bias for sportier handling.

You’d have thought Jaguar was the one luxury brand which could have resisted the siren song of the SUV market. After all, the entire range of Land Rover products sit right there in the same showroom, and Land Rover pretty much invented the luxury SUV.

Urged by its dealers, Jaguar executives figured Land Rovers were excellent off-road vehicles which also perform well on-road.

The F-Pace is supposed to be an on-road vehicle with typical-Jaguar agility, performance and ride quality, but which can also handle the rough stuff and provide more space than any Jaguar ever.

Freelance writer Jim Kenzie is a regular contributor to Toronto Star Wheels. For this story, his travel and other expenses were paid by the manufacturer. To reach him, email mailto: mailto: wheels@thestar.ca and put his name in the subject line.

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com